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The Compendium

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Sixteen-year-old Red Helldiver of Lykos, the youngest and best driller his clan can remember.

Cassius Au Bellona

A charming, beautiful young Gold of the powerful House Bellona, the first Aureate to befriend Darrow.

The brilliant, mocking golden-haired strategist of House Minerva, a mounted raider who reads her enemies like open books.

A tiny, drab, foul-mouthed Gold who looks more khaki than gold, with an inside track and no fear of anyone.

An unseen Institute rival, dubbed the Jackal by his Proctor — reputedly smarter, crueler, and stronger than Darrow.

A titanic, disdainful Gold brute of House Mars, taller than Darrow with a bone-crushing grip.

The crude, gum-chewing, hatchet-faced Peerless Scarred Proctor of House Mars, who runs the Institute's 'mad dogs.'

Darrow's uncle, the Lambda crew's drunken headTalk and last surviving brother of Darrow's hanged father.

Nero Au Augustus

The Gold ArchGovernor of Mars, supreme Society authority over the planet, invoked but unseen.

Pax Au Telemanus

The titanic Minervan boy, bred to lead Obsidian boarding parties, who captures Darrow with a bear-hug before being felled below the belt.

A slender, poet-souled Gold of House Mars whose rare smiles are genuine.

Antonia Au Severus

A cruelly beautiful, scornful Gold girl of House Mars, second-highest scorer, who openly despises Darrow.

The vain, godlike Proctor of House Apollo, a guard-dog of the Jackal who ambushes Darrow in person to force him back north.

The warm, menacing crippled leader of a Sons of Ares cell who recruits Darrow and shows him the great deception.

Darrow's sixteen-year-old wife, a Webbery silk-harvester whose fierce spirit embodies the soul of their people.

A cold, half-scarred Son of Ares, cruelly beautiful and knife-carrying, who pulls Darrow from his grave.

A gentle, ever-smiling young Gold who befriends Darrow on the shuttle, devoted to his brother and his large family.

A vain, twelve-fingered Violet Carver in Yorkton's Bazaar who bio-sculpts humans into winged, clawed dreamthings.

A shadowy terrorist movement warring on the Society for the sake of its oppressed lower Colors.

A languid, cruel, knife-loving boy of House Diana who covets the Reaper's blade and scalp and drifts through menace like a bored aristocrat.

The academy where the elite of the Golds graduate to become the scar-marked Peerless.

The god-named adult overseers who watch the Institute war from floating Olympus, meddling, feasting, and pranking like drunken deities.

The Society's rigid caste system dividing humanity into ranked Colors, each marked by Sigils and bred to a role.

The ruling Color of the Society, golden-haired overlords who govern all other Colors from the top of the pyramid.

The dominant archer House of the harsh South, its heavy cavalry ranging beneath the Valles Marineris, marked for destruction by Darrow.

The Institute House of the Harvest Goddess, holding a river fortress of crops, orchards, and horses on the southern plains.

The best-ordered rival House, named for Athena the owl, with horses, stunpikes, strategy — and a sandstone fortress Darrow raids.

The red planet where the Reds toil underground, its barren surface awaiting the terraforming their labor is said to fuel.

A fastidious, waspish Pink tutor who drills Darrow in Gold grooming, manners, speech, dining, and dance.

The grim, fully hardened Primus of House Apollo, a boy transformed by the brutal South into a humorless man.

The Society's colossal soldier Color, warriors nearly twice a Red's size.

Octavia Au Lune

The aged Gold Sovereign of the Society, whose broadcasts preach obedience and sacrifice to the Red pioneers.

A flawless, courteous Premier of House Mars whose Bellona-bannerwoman mother owns Mars's two moons.

A blazing-fast, funny midDraft girl of House Mars and a committed liar, who takes up with Cassius.

The shrewd, hawkish leader of House Diana's woodland hunters, whom Darrow courts with the promise of Ceres's bread.

The Institute War

The Institute's central war-game: twelve Houses in twelve castles fight to dominate a terraformed valley — a live study in seizing an empire.

The Institute's dreaded, secret final test — its best-kept secret, whispered of but known to almost none.

The jeweled capital of Mars in the Valles Marineris, seat of the ArchGovernor and home of the Institute.

An old, kinder Gray Tinpot who shows the doomed couple small mercies.

The titanic hand-shaped drilling machine a Helldiver pilots alone in the deep tunnels.

The Society's bureaucrat Color, copper-haired administrators of data, management, and quotas.

The legendary Helldiver of the rival Gamma clan, a leathery veteran who insists raw pull never matters.

Dancers Rebellion

The failed peaceful protest led by Darrow's father, whose hanging ended it and defined Darrow's grief.

Eo's fragile sister and Loran's wife, keeper of Eo's final secret.

A quiet, sorrowful winged Pink girl carved by Mickey, who tends Darrow through his agony and slips him a feather.

The Reds' mourning rite of fists beating chests ever slower until, like the dead heart, they beat no more.

The insulating nanoplastic mining suit that seals a Helldiver in his own heat, sweat, and stink.

The favored Red mining clan of Lykos that has held the Laurel and its luxuries for as long as anyone remembers.

The Society's gray-clad garrison police and soldiers, called Tinpots, who enforce order over the Reds.

The Society's small, dark-haired Color of technicians and camera crews who record its spectacles.

A rare flower Eo leaves after a death, a small emblem of grief, tenderness, and quiet defiance.

The precious mineral the Reds mine from the deep tunnels of Mars, said to be the lifeblood of terraforming.

The woodland hunting House of the Greatwoods, named for the huntress goddess, whose foragers Darrow courts against Minerva.

The unbroken northern superpower of the king-god, its triple-walled mountain castle taken by Darrow while its main army was stranded besieging Mars.

The Institute House of killers and war, marked by the two-headed golden wolf, into which Darrow is drafted.

The cold mountain House of the death-god, ruled by the Jackal, whose burned, teeth-braided emissaries wield ion weapons.

The titanic king-god Proctor and the Jackal's other guard-dog, a decadent tyrant felled only when Sevro hamstrings him invisibly.

Darrow's cautious elder brother, a Lambda driller with a wife and young twins.

Darrow's Red mining clan of Lykos, perennial also-rans to Gamma in the race for the Laurel.

A gentle House Mars Dreg, once beaten by Vixus and beloved of Roque, murdered by Antonia as bait for Darrow.

Darrow's tall, quiet sister, who aids his grief in silence.

The Jackal's burned, teeth-braided emissary from House Pluto, who delivers a death-mark on the Reaper.

Darrow's cousin and friend, Narol's son, a playful Lambda driller married to Eo's sister.

The Rage Knight, an Olympic Knight of Family Arcos and third-greatest man on Mars, who drafts Darrow into House Mars.

Earth's moon, colonized as the port of the Solar System and birthplace of the Society and its Colors.

The underground Red mining colony on Mars where Darrow was born, a warren of tunnels, townships, and taverns.

The cherubic, drink-loving Proctor and gifted razor-dancer who once wanted to draft Darrow, warned against pushing him, and duels him on Olympus.

The willowy, dishonorable Oathbreaker from House Juno who becomes the first and coldest recruit of Darrow's new free army.

The artificial mountain floating above the Institute's valley, where the Proctors watch and meddle in the war from a fairy-tale castle.

Peerless Scarred

The elite of the Golds, marked by a facial scar earned by graduating the Institute.

Oil-black tunnel serpents that seek warmth in a Helldiver's suit, their venomous young the deadliest.

The Gold gentleman's polyenne blade — soft as hair one instant, harder than diamond the next, and death for any other Color to carry.

The lowest Color, red-haired mining slaves who dig helium-3 in the deep tunnels of Mars.

A cruelly curved half-moon cutter carried by Helldivers to hack free limbs caught in the drills.

The agonizing surgical remaking of a body from one Color into another, the Sons' great gamble to forge a false Gold.

The tiered central plaza of Lykos, ringed by taverns and Gamma homes, where the clans dance beneath the gallows.

The war in which Luna's Golds rebelled against and defeated Earth, founding the Society's rule.

The Forbidden Song

The forbidden song of vale and reaper, punishable by death, that Eo sings as her act of defiance.

A vast primeval forest of building-tall godTrees and Carver-made bloodback bears, home to House Diana.

The Institute's twelve Houses, named for Roman gods, that sort and network the young Golds toward powerful patrons.

Sevro's wolfcloaked band of six former Dregs, House Mars's night-raiders whose howls fill the dark.

The Society's quarterly prize of luxury and food awarded to the top mining clan, a carrot to keep the Reds grasping.

The Oathbreakers

The enslaved students who broke their vows and now roam free and shunned — the wild, willing core of Darrow's new autonomous army.

The domed fortress high in the ceiling of Lykos where the colony's Gray and Copper keepers live.

The rigid color-caste civilization ruling humanity across the planets, built on obedience, hierarchy, and sacrifice.

Timony Cu Podginus

The simpering Copper MineMagistrate of Lykos who awards the Laurel and administers the colony's quotas.

The greasy, crippled Gray captain of Lykos's garrison who taunts Darrow and leers at Eo.

Titus's psychotic right hand, a dueling-club sadist with dead raven eyes, wrecked by Darrow in the keep.

The gleaming Gold city on the surface of Mars above Lykos, stratified by Color into avenues, sectors, and the lawless Bazaar.